Stories for March 3rd 2018

An Argentine charter is scheduled to land in the Falkland Islands this Sunday carrying the plaques (tombstones) with the names of the 88 now identified Argentine soldiers buried in the Darwin cemetery following a DNA forensic identification process during last year, led by the International Red Cross.

”Real political difficulties” lie ahead for Brexit, EU summit chair Donald Tusk said after Prime Minister Theresa May gave him a preview of the vision of future trade ties she will unveil on Friday. Over lunch on Thursday at her Downing Street office, May told Tusk a draft Brexit treaty published by the European Union on Wednesday was “unacceptable” in its proposal of keeping Northern Ireland effectively in an EU customs union, potentially isolating the province economically from the British mainland.

Brazil's economy grew by a percentage point in 2017 after two years of contraction, government figures showed Thursday, confirming the South American giant's recovery from one of the worst recessions in its history. The agro-industrial sector led the way with 13% growth last year, trailed by the service sector, which showed 0.3% growth. Industrial output remained stable.

Prosecutor general, Raquel Dodge, requested Brazilian Supreme Court justice, Edson Fachin, to include president Michel Temer in the list of those under investigation in an inquiry launched last year to determine Odebrecht's alleged payments to the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) party in 2014.

Venezuela's national election board announced the vote slated for April 22 had been pushed back to the second half of May, with a final date to be specified later, after a pact between Maduro’s government and some opposition parties.

Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and his father Kim Jong-il reportedly applied for Western visas using Brazilian passports back in the 1990’s. Reuters published what it claims are photocopies of Brazilian passports held by both Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-il, which they used to apply for visas.

A Vatican magazine has denounced how nuns are often treated like indentured servants by cardinals and bishops, for whom they cook and clean for next to no pay. The March edition of “Women Church World,” the monthly women’s magazine of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, hit newsstands Thursday. Its expose on the underpaid labor and unappreciated intellect of religious sisters confirmed that the magazine is increasingly becoming the imprint of the Catholic Church’s #MeToo movement.

In his speech to Congress marking the opening of this year’s legislative session, Argentine president Mauricio Macri defended his business-friendly government’s so-called “gradualist” approach to economic reforms from critics who argue he should move faster to cut government spending and lower taxes in order to boost growth and attract investment.

Falkland Islands' weekly Penguin News has received confirmation from the British Forces South Atlantic Islands Headquarters that earlier this week United Kingdom and Argentina held defense talks for the first time in over ten years. This week's PN reported on the front page that the Argentine newspaper Clarin released the story on the defense talks, but had no British defense confirmation to its request at the time of going to print.

The Argentine foreign ministry said on Thursday that several airlines from Brazil, Chile and Uruguay have expressed an interest in making proposals for scheduled flights to the Falkland/Malvinas Islands with stops in Argentine territory.